Dr Fiona Fleming recounts her experience of taking part in the London Triathlon and the incredible satisfaction gained from raising over £8000 for SCI

On 2 August 2014, Dr Fiona Fleming, along with 5 colleagues from SCI, took part in the London Triathlon’s Olympic Relay event. Fiona recounts her experience here and the incredible satisfaction gained from raising over £8,000 for SCI.

On Saturday 2nd August I took part in the London Triathlon. This was my first ‘official triathlon’ and I cycled 40 km as the bike leg for one of SCI’s two Olympic Relay Teams. I say ‘first official’ because I have vague memories of participating in a half-triathlon in Jinja in Uganda, only a week after suffering a bout of malaria. I was in my twenties then when one thinks one is invincible. I will not disclose how old I am now, other than to say, I am now old enough to feel the challenge of a 40km bike ride.
 
When Mike French (SCI’s Programme Manager for Ethiopia and avid runner), circulated the idea of entering a SCI team or two to participate in this year’s London Triathlon I said yes because I thought it would be a good goal for getting fit and losing weight post having several children. As it got nearer to the time when training really needed to kick in, I considered dropping out. How was I going to manage two small kids, work and training? However, several other team members had to drop out for far more valid reasons (pregnancies and weddings) and so I thought ‘just get on with it’.
 
I am so glad that I did not change my mind and decided to participate! My training was at times arduous (when I was really pushing myself) and at times fairly pleasant, but a lot of the time I had very beautiful scenery either in Windsor Great Park or whilst I was on holiday in north-west Scotland which kept me motivated. On the days where I was housebound due to parental responsibilities I had an indoor turbo trainer that I could put my bike on and an exercise DVD, which had my three year old in uncontrollable fits of laughter every time he saw me do it.
 
Then came the big day! After a very lengthy (3 hour) commute to the venue, due to having a bike with me, there was a lot of nervous excitement, fuelled by caffeine products and protein gels, as we met up, taped our numbers onto bikes and helmets, pinned numbers onto t-shirts and got into wetsuits. We then went to the transition area where we parked our bikes and figured out where we needed to go in and out of the transition area for the swim, then the bike and finally the run. Finally it was time for the swimmers Yolisa and Janet to congregate with all the other swimmers, get a pep talk and shuffle down to the edge of the Victoria Docks. We stood outside trying to spot them, but all the swim caps looked the same. Just before they set off a Swiss Air plane took off from London City airport and roared above them in the water.
 
At this point myself and Laura (Appleby, from Partnership for Child Developent) from the other SCI team headed back to the transition spot to nervously await the arrival of our swimmers. I scanned the other bikes and noticed that mine was the only heavy mountain bike and that actually a road bike would have been a far better option. I know this for next time. If there is a next time.

Yolisa Nalule on her way to the transition point

After about 25 mins the swimmers arrived almost together and passed over the time chips which we (mistakenly) attached to our wrists and we set off. As everyone whizzed by me I tried to focus on setting up a pace which would see me thorough the first 3 of the 4 laps. I got into my rhythm and had a few other cyclist’s going at a similar pace which we took turns in passing and catching up with each other. The first lap was quite exciting in seeing the O2 arena and some cement works, but then the track began to slide into a painful monotony. I really struggled somewhere between laps two and three. Everything seemed to hurt, where it hadn’t on training, and it is fair to say that I did not have a positive mental attitude at this low point. I was also beginning to lose distance on my ‘cycling buddies’, which didn’t help. One high point during this time was hearing a ‘COME ON FIONA’ coming from Sarah and Mike somewhere on a bridge, it gave me a spurt of motivation to push harder. With the end of lap three nearing my mind started to swing back to positive thoughts of, ‘I can do this, nearly finished, just a little bit faster’ and I concentrated on getting my breathing right and my legs pushing on through the pain. It worked and the fourth and final lap was hard but enjoyable.
 
Finally I was able to cycle up the ramp, grunting as I did so, and dismount before running back to the transition area with incredibly shaky legs. There I passed the chip onto Mike who set out on his 10km run. On finishing I found I had come in about 16 minutes after Laura and approximately in 1 hr 45 mins, which is less than the 2 hours I was allowing for. I was happy, tired, shaky, dehydrated and feeling a little nauseous. Why did I do this again? I reminded myself that it wasn’t just for a focus to get fit, but that fortunately something bigger would come out of all this sweat (not so much blood or tears) and that was the treatment of over 7,500 children for schistosomiasis (more hopefully if people continue to donate before 31 August - https://mydonate.bt.com/events/scilondontriathlon2014). It feels a bit strange to fundraise for an organisation that you work for, but ultimately you know what will happen with the money, you know the effects and impact of treatment and you know none of the money will go on administrative costs and salaries.
 
After resting my weary legs, we went over to watch the runners come in. First came Sarah, Laura and I joined her for the last dash and over the finish line and within 90 seconds Mike appeared which was a tremendous effort to catch up. It was great that both teams finished at the same time. We had been well matched. Not being used to this kind of event I was delighted to receive a medal and a free bottle of water at the end of it. All that was left then was to pick up our gear, take a few sweaty post-race photos, and make our way home for some R&R and, in my case, an ice cold beer!